


Complications

by Katrina



Series: Modernverse [6]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-03
Updated: 2011-08-03
Packaged: 2017-10-22 04:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/233578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katrina/pseuds/Katrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonardo and Desmond have a talk. Of sorts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Complications

With a bit of a lazy sigh, Des stretched out, using Leo’s side as a backrest. That was surprisingly comfortable, and had the side benefit of Leo draping his arm around Des, absently petting at his belly. There were snacks in reach, and Des was enjoying the movie. It was pretty horrible, but entertaining to mock. Leo’s humor was a bit dry at times. Des blamed the time the man had lived in England. They were the land of dry humor.

If he was going to be honest, though, most of his attention was on Leo’s hand and the warmth against his back. The older man was really quite comfy to lean against, and plenty tall enough for Des to fit in nicely against his side.

Des found he liked that.

He added it to the mental list. It joined random facts like Leo was willing to let Des experiment in his kitchen without too much fuss. Des’s apartment was decent enough, but Leo had not held back in his kitchen in the least, and it was a pretty nice room. Leo also gave one hell of a back massage, turned into a very cuddly blanket while asleep, and was excellent in bed. Hell, when he’d seen Des naked for the first time, he had only paused a moment. Usually Des got a lot more hesitation from his partners when they first saw him without any clothing on, and saw just how much metal and ink he was wearing. Leo, though, had only hesitated a few moments with a strange look on his face, then went right into exploring mode.

Oh, yes. Exploring mode. Another reason Des enjoyed spending time with Leo.

When this thing had started, he figured Leo was only looking for a fuck buddy. He was older, dressed well, and had the sort of speaking that only came from a good education. Everything pointed at someone who was slumming. So Des hadn’t expected much. Few weeks of intense sex and then drifting apart.

But Leo was nicer than that. They had had a nice dinner that first date, shockingly relaxed with each other as they had talked. Nothing too personal, but there had been a lot of back and forth over a variety of topics, and Des was still a bit amazed at the spread of things that Leo was interested in.

Okay, the sex in the alley on his bike was a bit more along the line of what he had been expecting, but.... Well, that was him pouncing more than Leo. Not that the man had been the least bit reluctant.

Ah, yes, very, very good night.

And it went from there. Leo turned into a regular fixture at the bar, which Owen and the other’s liked. He was polite, nice, helpful when they needed it, and tipped insanely well. Des had to have a few words with the more predatory waitresses. His, thank you very much, and he wasn’t sharing. It wasn’t like he was there to keep an eye on Des, either. Oh, he did watch Des enough, but the teen had dealt with the more creepy aspect of an over possessive lover before, and Leo didn’t give off that vibe. He just liked to watch Des. Which was a bit of a thrill, and he had to grin.

Before he had known it, they were sort of dating, and it was....nice. Last boyfriend had been an ass, and he hadn’t been looking for another relationship right now. Sex, sure, that was a nice relaxing activity. Didn’t want the messy emotional aspect of it, and he hadn’t expect for it to sneak up on him like this.

Sneaky Leo.

“You go to sleep on me?”

The voice was soft, and if Des really had been asleep, he probably wouldn’t have woken up. Or, at least, not jerked awake. He just leaned a bit harder into Leo, catching the man’s fingers with his own. “I’m awake. Just thinking.”

Leo chuckled. “Should I be worried?”

“Just thinking on how sneaky you were. So, are we dating now?”

There was a moment of silence, and Des frowned. Settling up some, he turned his body a bit, looking at Leo. “Leo...?” There was something there, and Des felt himself tense. Leo was thinking, and thinking hard. He didn’t look exactly happy either, and that made Des’s stomach tense up some. “What’s wrong?”

“I.... There’s something I need to talk to you about. But I want you to promise to listen to me, please?”

That was definitely not a good line. That tense feeling in his stomach turned to lead. “You aren’t married or something, are you?” Had had that situation once, didn’t want it again.

Blue eyes went a bit wide, and then Leo shook his head a bit rapidly. “No, nothing like that. I just....” He paused, mouth opening and shutting a time or two before he continued. “Do you know why I came to the US?”

Nervous. Leo was nervous. What the hell? “You said you got a job, right?”

Des was really starting to feel the urge to twitch here. He was picking up Leo’s nerves and didn’t like it. Then Leo looked at him, and the pair spent a moment just studying one another.

“I work for A+E, Des. I met Ezio while he was on vacation and he wanted to hire me.”

Ezio.... Leo knew Des’s brothers.

“What is this?” Des asked after a long, incredibly slow moving few minutes of silence. Could barely hear due to the pulse throbbing in his ears, and he felt sick. “You get hired by them to keep track of me or something?”

“No!” Now Leo flinched back. “No, it isn’t anything like that. I’m part of the research department.”

“Sure about that? And why didn’t you say anything about this before?” Voice cold, Des moved to stand, not wanting to be sitting still. Instead, he started to pace some, one eye on Leo. “What the hell is this, Leonardo? Some sort of game for you?”

It was amazing how pale the other man could get, and he made a half motion towards Des, who shied away from the hand. “It isn’t like that. I didn’t expect to see you at that bar, and I didn’t say anything because would you have even given me a chance to get to know you if you knew I worked for your brothers?”

“Let me guess, I’m some sort of replacement? You said you met Ezio while he was on vacation? I can just imagine what the pair of you did.” It was easy to see that he had hit the mark there, and he discovered that Leo could get even paler. Amazing. “Decided you couldn’t be in his bed anymore, so you decided to pick up the next brother?”

Leo made a strangled sound. “No! You did remind me of him, but you two are brothers. But that’s not why....”

“Just...stop.” There was a click as Leo’s mouth snapped shut. Des felt miserable. How nice. Here he thought he might have found a nice guy, and now he wasn’t sure how much he could trust him. “What do you want from this? Why keep this up?”

Another strangled noise, and Leo ran his hands through his hair, obviously trying to come up with something. Des wasn’t sure if he wanted to listen to the man. “Because I like you. You’re interesting and bright and..... I don’t know. When I’m around you, I’m happy, and just thinking of you makes me smile. I was curious what you were like when I first saw you, but then we started talking and I liked that. We had fun, and I liked spending time with you.”

Dragging a hand across his mouth, Des paced a bit more. “I have to go. I have to think.” With that, he turned and stalked towards the door. There was only a moment of pause as Leo spoke up again.

“I don’t want to hide things from you. That’s why..... I do want to keep seeing you, but I don’t want to hide things like that, Des. Because you do make me happy, and I want to make you happy. Lying about things you’ll find out sooner or later won’t make you happy.”

“Maybe you should have told me from the start, then.”

And then he was outside. Stopping for a moment, chest hurting, Des took a deep breath. Then he went to where his bike was and hopped on. It only took a few seconds to leave the driveway, and then he just picked a direction and started to drive.

Leo was right. If he had mentioned Des’s family at the beginning, there wasn’t even a chance that Des would have considered it. Which is why he was so pissed now. As well as a mixed up mash of other emotions, which he couldn’t even start to untangle. Anger was at the top, though, he could focus on that.

Bastard. He had manipulated things. Des hated to be manipulated.

He drove. Didn’t plan on stopping until he ran out of gas. Then he’d probably fill up and keep going. There was a bar and drinking in his future. Just...not here. Not where he could be found.

Absently, he wonder if his brothers knew. Probably did. Malik seemed to figure everything out, if Leo hadn’t told them himself. Bet they found that funny as hell, the asses. Altair would think it was a good lesson on how not to trust people, and Ezio would find it funny to know he was so good that Leo had to go find a replacement that resembled Ezio as much as possible.

Anger burning in his chest, sharp and bitter in the back of his throat, Desmond just drove.


End file.
